Language Quotes

5358 quotes by 3063 authors

A translation can never equal the original; it can approach it, and its quality can only be judged as to accuracy by how close it… — Gregory Rabassa
A translator is essentially a reader and we all read differently, except that a translator's reading remains in unchanging print — Gregory Rabassa
I have always maintained that translation is essentially the closest reading one can possibly give a text. The translator cannot ignore "lesser" words, but must… — Gregory Rabassa
Translation is a disturbing craft because there is precious little certainty about what we are doing, which makes it so difficult in this age of… — Gregory Rabassa
The best thing on translation was said by Cervantes: translation is the other side of a tapestry. — Leonardo Sciascia
The gift of language is the single human trait that marks us all genetically, setting us apart from the rest of life. — Lewis Thomas
A national language is a band of national union. — Noah Webster
It is useless to read Greek in translation; translators can but offer us a vague equivalent. — Virginia Woolf
Language is power, life and the instrument of culture, the instrument of domination and liberation. — Angela Carter
If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what… — Confucius
There's an aspect of human nature in which we want to think we're better than somebody else. They're a different color. They speak a different… — John Denver
Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition into which he has been born... — Aldous Huxley
Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the… — Aldous Huxley
Our native language is like a second skin, so much a part of us we resist the idea that it is constantly changing, constantly being… — Casey Miller
Language is the soul of intellect, and reading is the essential process by which that intellect is cultivated beyond the commonplace experiences of everyday life. — Charles Scribner IV
Language helps form the limits of our reality. — Dale Spender
Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections,… — Noah Webster
One forgets words as one forgets names. One's vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die. — Evelyn Waugh
In the lives of individuals and societies, language is a factor of greater importance than any other. For the study of language to remain solely… — Ferdinand de Saussure
The most important word in the language of the working class is "solidarity." — Harry Bridges

Who Wrote These Language Quotes

3,063 authors contributed a total of 5,358 Language Quotes, led by these top contributors: